Flooding and Drought in Northern Kenya.
Children receiving treatment for water borne diseases in a Government run hospital in Mandera Northern Kenya In December 2006 I flew into Wajir and other areas of Northern Kenya The area had been cut off by road due to heavy flooding in the region Following months of drought common sense would have dictated that rainwater would have been beneficial to the 3 5 million in Northern Kenya said to be caught in the grips of famine But the flooding had only exasperated already dire conditions there By inundating the parched soil and displacing families and thereby creating more refugees Refugees for whom it might be said it was almost impossible to deliver humanitarian aid due to the impassable nature of the roads north from Nairobi By the time we arrived in Wajir near the border of Somalia the extreme heat had evaporated most of the water within a week The stagnant pools left behind though had become breeding grounds for malaria carrying mosquitos Cases of malaria and of other water borne diseases in the local hospitals were rising sharply In an era of global warming with increasingly unpredictable weather patterns it is hard to envisage an easy path out of the constant cycle of drought and flooding that perennially grips not just Northern Kenya but an area extending all the way up to the Horn of Africa
Size: 3584px × 2389px
Location: Mandera, Northern Kenya
Photo credit: © George Philipas / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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